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INTRODUCTION. XV

re€tions here given. I readily admit that the principle is fo fimple, and fo obvious to every confiderate mind, that it would certainly be no- thing extraordinary, if he, by his own reflections alone, fhould have difcovered it, as well as I did. There is only one particular mode that I myfelf had not prattifed before that effay was publith- ed, viz. the making the tapping by means of a boring inftrument; but even this I have particularly defcribed, as you will find in the following words at page 181.(Third edition, Vol 1.) of the fore- faid effays. After defcribing the mode of tap- ping I had adopted, by finking{mall pits, and explaining the cafes in which it may be fuccefs- fully practifed, it is added,“ I have often imagin- «ed that the expence of digging thefe pits « might be faved, by boring a hole through this « folid fratum of clay with a wimble(an auger) « made on purpofe; but as I have never experi- «¢ enced this, I cannot fay whether it would an- “«{wer the defired end exaétly.”—Neither can I now fay, whether Mr,Elkington grounded his prac- tice on this hint or not; but I may fafely fay, if he did not, he might have done it: and as I could not have borrowed it from him, if there be any merit in the di/covery, I have affuredly a jutt title to claim it.

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